Sports Illustrated Story on Oklahoma State Football Alleged Corruption; Official Reactions, Backlash
SI alleges cash payments from coaches, boosters at Oklahoma State
By Chip Patterson | College Football Writer
September 10, 2013 10:03 am ET
Sports Illustrated's 10-month project investigating the rise of Oklahoma State football will be rolled out over the next two weeks, alleging numerous NCAA violations and commenting on the culture of the Cowboys program under Les Miles and Mike Gundy from 2001-11.
The first installment -- "The Money" -- was posted Tuesday morning. The most notable allegations in the first part of the series included the three ways Oklahoma State funneled money to players.
According to Sports Illustrated, this happened three ways.
A bonus system, managed by assistant coaches
Direct payments from boosters
No-show jobs or sham jobs arranged by coaches and boosters.
Former coach Les Miles and current Cowboys coach Mike Gundy are not linked directly to any payments documented by SI's reporting. However, the report has multiple players discussing, on the record, violations committed by former Cowboys assistants Joe DeForest and Larry Porter.
DeForest, now the associate head coach at West Virginia, and Porter, now the running backs coach at Texas, both issued statements to SI vehemently denying the allegations.
In separate interviews, eight former Oklahoma State players told SI they received cash payments while playing for the Cowboys, naming 29 other teammates in those interviews who did the same.
While several boosters, including the athletic museum curator and a local FCA director, arranged for jobs to overpay players for chores or speaking arrangements, T. Boone Pickens, the most prominent booster in the school's history, was not implicated in any improprieties by SI's report.
Arguably the most damning excerpt for Joe DeForest came from former defensive tackle Brad Girtman. Girtman told SI that he was "getting paid on the low end" compared to his teammates -- who "got monster payments."
From SI:
For Girtman, quarterback hurries were worth $50, a tackle between $75 to $100 and a sack from $200 to $250. Echoing his teammates' claim, Girtman says the rates were told to him by assistant Joe DeForest, who ran the special teams and secondary under coach Les Miles from 2001 to '04, and was the associate head coach, special teams coordinator and safeties coach under current coach Mike Gundy from 2005 to '11. When players met with their position coaches after games, according to Girtman, DeForest would go from group to group and discuss with the players what they had done. "Your stats definitely dictated how much you were getting," Girtman says.
It should be noted that current coach Mike Gundy kicked Girtman off the team in 2005, his first season as head coach, for a violation of team rules.
Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder spoke to the media on Monday. At the time, the story had not been posted but the Cowboys' AD was aware of the allegations made by Sports Illustrated.
"We're all committed to playing by the rules and doing things the right way, and for people to say that is not what's happening is very disturbing," Holder said. "Our goal is to separate fact from fiction, and then we can start dealing with it. We've already notified the NCAA, and they're going to assign an investigator to this. We'll reach out and get someone to stand with that investigator and go through the facts. And at the end of the day, we'll come to some conclusions, and we'll deal with those. We'll prop ourselves back up, polish up that OSU brand and move on down the road.
"I apologize to all of the athletic directors in the conference for what's about to happen, what's about to be said about a member institution. That reflects on everyone, all of our brothers and peers. I've reached out, but couldn't call all of our supporters. I'd like to call every single season ticket holder we've got. We're about to sell a record number of season tickets. We have a responsibility to those people. They're going to suffer from this as well. My message was 'You're not going to like what you hear. It's going to be a rough few days, but our hope is that you may not be proud about what's being said about you, but we hope to make you proud of the way that we deal with it and how we stood up, didn't make any excuses and didn't try to cover anything up."
The schedule for the rest of the series:
Part 1: The Money (Tuesday)
Part 2: The Academics (Wednesday)
Part 3: The Drugs (Thursday)
Part 4: The Sex (Friday)
Part 5: The Fallout (Tuesday)
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/eye-on-college-football/23574660/si-alleges-cash-payments-from-coaches-boosters-at-oklahoma-state
-------------------------------------------------------------
Gundy makes statement on 'Sports Illustrated's' Oklahoma State series
By Chip Patterson | College Football Writer
September 9, 2013 7:07 pm ET
On Tuesday, Sports Illustrated will release the first installment of a five-part series on the findings of a 10-month investigation into the Oklahoma State football program.
The piece, which will reportedly include allegations ranging from funneling money to players through no-show jobs to academic misconduct and tolerated drug use, is said to include interviews with more than 60 former Cowboys along with current and former staff members.
On Monday afternoon, current Cowboys coach Mike Gundy released a video statement to address the report. Sports Illustrated will publish the first installment Tuesday at 9 a.m. ET.
"I'm very proud of what we've accomplished here, both on and off the field," Gundy said in what will be his only comment on the report. "Our goal has always been to take young people from where their parents have gotten them and to make them better over a four or five year period. We're very proud of that in many ways. So, until further time -- and obviously the university will make that decision -- there's not any comment that we would have on the Sports Illustrated article."
Oklahoma State (2-0) will play host to Lamar on Saturday night. The Cowboys then have a week off before kicking off their Big 12 schedule at West Virginia on Sept. 28.
-------------------------------------------------------------
T. Boone Pickens speaks out on Oklahoma State allegations
By Jerry Hinnen | College Football Writer
September 10, 2013 7:43 pm ET
It goes without saying there aren't any boosters at Oklahoma State more prominent than T. Boone Pickens, and with the possible exception of Phil Knight and Oregon, there's arguably no booster anywhere more prominent at his or her chosen athletics program that Pickens is in Stillwater.
That being the case, Pickens was all-but-conspicuous by his absence in the first installment of Sports Illustrated's expose into NCAA violations within Oklahoma State's football program, which alleged that multiple Cowboy boosters either paid players cash or hired players for sham jobs. But his complete absence from the report did little to stem his "disappointment," as he expressed in a statement and video released Monday afternoon:
The full text of the statement:
There's one word I have for the Sports Illustrated reporting on Oklahoma State University: Disappointing.
This series is not reflective of Oklahoma State University today. Many of their sensational allegations go back a decade ago.
There have been wholesale changes at the school in recent years in leadership and facilities. During that time, I have given more than $500 million to OSU, for athletics and academics. Have I gotten my money's worth? You bet. We have a football program that has a commitment to principled sportsmanship. They understand the expectations we, as fans and supporters, have for the program. We have an incredible and growing fan base, and a loyal group of alums that believe in the character of our players, coaches and administrators.
But I do welcome this scrutiny. If people take the time, it's an opportunity to better understand where Oklahoma State is today, not a decade ago. It's a different university today. It's a better university. If there are areas where we need to improve, we'll do it.
Which leads me back to my disappointment with Sports Illustrated, and their failure to ask the most important question of all: What's happening at OSU today?
It's hard to fault Pickens for his pride in Oklahoma State, or his focus on the present over what for many of the allegations is a distant past. But for most readers of SI's story, the fact is "what's happening at OSU today?" is a less important question than "did this actually happen at OSU yesterday?"
And on that particular point, Pickens' statement appears to not have an answer.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Jason Whitlock slams SI writer Thayer Evans
By KELLY HINES Sports Writer on Sep 10, 2013, at 1:07 PM
Updated on 9/10 at 3:38 PM
ESPN writer Jason Whitlock had some unkind things to say about his former co-worker Thayer Evans, who is one of the Sports Illustrated writers behind the publication's five-part exposé on Oklahoma State football. Here's what Whitlock said on the Oklahoma City Sports Animal earlier today:
“I have the obvious take (on the series) that I’m tired of these stories. We’ve been reading these stories for 30 years and I’m tired of people pointing out how corrupt participants are in a system that has been proven to be corrupt. The NCAA amateur system is corrupt, so we should not be surprised that there is corruption among the participants. I would like to see more of the focus on the NCAA and the system and fixing that, and then I’ll get upset about the corruption. I think the story is a cliché and bogus and suspect and just the wrong angle.
“But then in addition to that, having worked with Thayer Evans at Fox Sports, having followed his work for some time, I am completely and utterly flabbergasted that a legitimate news outlet would allow Thayer Evans to be involved in some type of investigative piece on college football that tears down a program, and particularly one that tears down Oklahoma State when it is no secret what a huge, enormous, gigantic Oklahoma homer Thayer Evans is. This is just incredible. Knowing the lack of competence that’s there with Thayer Evans, knowing the level of simplemindedness that’s there with Thayer Evans, to base any part of the story on his reporting is mind-boggling.
“ … When I learned Thayer Evans was involved, I just said, there’s no way I’ll read this because there’s no reason to trust this reporter on anything of any substance. If you go back and look at his track record of reporting and the consistent controversy that surrounds his reporting - he made a name for himself at the New York Times by writing these annual stories about some top high school football recruit that he would buddy up to, follow around with a tape recorder and then report what some immature 17-year-old kid said about the recruiting process. These kids tended to come from single-parent families with the mother working and busy, so there wasn’t the normal oversight and anybody with a brain could see the exploitation that was taking place. … It doesn’t surprise me there are sources in this story saying the reporting was heavy-handed and leading. I don’t want to make the whole thing about Thayer Evans, but there’s just no way to avoid it. I’ve worked with him. He’s simpleminded. He’s a hack that can’t write. This isn’t personal, I promise. I have no reason to dislike Thayer Evans personally, and I don’t. But I’ve read enough of his work this guy isn’t qualified for this job and by now Sports Illustrated and anybody else should be well aware of this. Type his name into Google, read his previous work, read how his previous work has been rebunked and there’s just no surprise. This story will be shrouded in controversy.
“ … I can’t disparage (other writer George Dohrmann) because I have never worked with him. I have never seen any of his raw copy or anything like that. There are a brand of sports writers who love doing these investigative pieces. They are not hard to do these days in terms of so-and-so got this money under the table. We’re into this area where unnamed sources can say anything, any of these he-said, she-said stories. I don’t respect the entire brand of investigative journalism that is being done here. It’s not our job to go out and do NCAA policing.
“ … There’s some cute girl on campus who is a hostess who may have slept with one of these players. This has been going on for years and it goes on in the frathouses and the academic corruption they are going to talk about goes on in the frathouses and all across campus. We are singling out these athletes. It’s a good story. It will get you a promotion. It will get you on SportsCenter. It will get you talked about on this radio show and all over Twitter. But it’s bogus. It’s a trick for clicks.
“ … The story to me, from everything I have heard ... it just seems so suspect. If that’s the standard, it’s he-said, she-said. If you can say this booster walked up to me and gave me $500 in the locker room and you don’t have to name that booster, this story could be done at Ball State. It could be done at Rutgers. It could be done at UCLA. It could be done anywhere.
“ … I hope (the named parties) get off scot-free because I don’t think they have done anything wrong. They are probably sweating bullets because America is so stupid and the sports media is so stupid that we will call for something to happen or we will want something to happen or the NCAA is so stupid. Yes, they should be sweating because we are in that kind of stupid society of no one wants to correct this corrupt system. But, for me, I hope Oklahoma State wins every game and wins the national championship. Have they lost this year? I hope they go Cam Newton. Remember when Cam Newton and his father were the worst thing on the planet. Oh my God. Thayer Evans was the leader of that. You would have thought Cam Newton was O.J. Simpson or Walter White. Cam Newton and his dad, who knows? Maybe they did want a couple of hundred thousand. More power to them. It’s America.
“ … Let me end by saying this and I honestly mean this without malice. It wouldn’t shock me if Thayer Evans couldn’t spell cat and I say in all seriousness.”
CONTACT THE BLOGGER
Kelly Hines
918-581-8452
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Patrick on SI allegations about OSU: 'It goes on all the time'
The Sports Illustrated project on Oklahoma State hasn't been published yet, but already national media are sounding off on ...
By Chip Patterson | College Football Writer
September 10, 2013 10:03 am ET
Sports Illustrated's 10-month project investigating the rise of Oklahoma State football will be rolled out over the next two weeks, alleging numerous NCAA violations and commenting on the culture of the Cowboys program under Les Miles and Mike Gundy from 2001-11.
The first installment -- "The Money" -- was posted Tuesday morning. The most notable allegations in the first part of the series included the three ways Oklahoma State funneled money to players.
According to Sports Illustrated, this happened three ways.
A bonus system, managed by assistant coaches
Direct payments from boosters
No-show jobs or sham jobs arranged by coaches and boosters.
Former coach Les Miles and current Cowboys coach Mike Gundy are not linked directly to any payments documented by SI's reporting. However, the report has multiple players discussing, on the record, violations committed by former Cowboys assistants Joe DeForest and Larry Porter.
DeForest, now the associate head coach at West Virginia, and Porter, now the running backs coach at Texas, both issued statements to SI vehemently denying the allegations.
In separate interviews, eight former Oklahoma State players told SI they received cash payments while playing for the Cowboys, naming 29 other teammates in those interviews who did the same.
While several boosters, including the athletic museum curator and a local FCA director, arranged for jobs to overpay players for chores or speaking arrangements, T. Boone Pickens, the most prominent booster in the school's history, was not implicated in any improprieties by SI's report.
Arguably the most damning excerpt for Joe DeForest came from former defensive tackle Brad Girtman. Girtman told SI that he was "getting paid on the low end" compared to his teammates -- who "got monster payments."
From SI:
For Girtman, quarterback hurries were worth $50, a tackle between $75 to $100 and a sack from $200 to $250. Echoing his teammates' claim, Girtman says the rates were told to him by assistant Joe DeForest, who ran the special teams and secondary under coach Les Miles from 2001 to '04, and was the associate head coach, special teams coordinator and safeties coach under current coach Mike Gundy from 2005 to '11. When players met with their position coaches after games, according to Girtman, DeForest would go from group to group and discuss with the players what they had done. "Your stats definitely dictated how much you were getting," Girtman says.
It should be noted that current coach Mike Gundy kicked Girtman off the team in 2005, his first season as head coach, for a violation of team rules.
Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder spoke to the media on Monday. At the time, the story had not been posted but the Cowboys' AD was aware of the allegations made by Sports Illustrated.
"We're all committed to playing by the rules and doing things the right way, and for people to say that is not what's happening is very disturbing," Holder said. "Our goal is to separate fact from fiction, and then we can start dealing with it. We've already notified the NCAA, and they're going to assign an investigator to this. We'll reach out and get someone to stand with that investigator and go through the facts. And at the end of the day, we'll come to some conclusions, and we'll deal with those. We'll prop ourselves back up, polish up that OSU brand and move on down the road.
"I apologize to all of the athletic directors in the conference for what's about to happen, what's about to be said about a member institution. That reflects on everyone, all of our brothers and peers. I've reached out, but couldn't call all of our supporters. I'd like to call every single season ticket holder we've got. We're about to sell a record number of season tickets. We have a responsibility to those people. They're going to suffer from this as well. My message was 'You're not going to like what you hear. It's going to be a rough few days, but our hope is that you may not be proud about what's being said about you, but we hope to make you proud of the way that we deal with it and how we stood up, didn't make any excuses and didn't try to cover anything up."
The schedule for the rest of the series:
Part 1: The Money (Tuesday)
Part 2: The Academics (Wednesday)
Part 3: The Drugs (Thursday)
Part 4: The Sex (Friday)
Part 5: The Fallout (Tuesday)
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/eye-on-college-football/23574660/si-alleges-cash-payments-from-coaches-boosters-at-oklahoma-state
-------------------------------------------------------------
Gundy makes statement on 'Sports Illustrated's' Oklahoma State series
By Chip Patterson | College Football Writer
September 9, 2013 7:07 pm ET
On Tuesday, Sports Illustrated will release the first installment of a five-part series on the findings of a 10-month investigation into the Oklahoma State football program.
The piece, which will reportedly include allegations ranging from funneling money to players through no-show jobs to academic misconduct and tolerated drug use, is said to include interviews with more than 60 former Cowboys along with current and former staff members.
On Monday afternoon, current Cowboys coach Mike Gundy released a video statement to address the report. Sports Illustrated will publish the first installment Tuesday at 9 a.m. ET.
"I'm very proud of what we've accomplished here, both on and off the field," Gundy said in what will be his only comment on the report. "Our goal has always been to take young people from where their parents have gotten them and to make them better over a four or five year period. We're very proud of that in many ways. So, until further time -- and obviously the university will make that decision -- there's not any comment that we would have on the Sports Illustrated article."
Oklahoma State (2-0) will play host to Lamar on Saturday night. The Cowboys then have a week off before kicking off their Big 12 schedule at West Virginia on Sept. 28.
-------------------------------------------------------------
T. Boone Pickens speaks out on Oklahoma State allegations
By Jerry Hinnen | College Football Writer
September 10, 2013 7:43 pm ET
It goes without saying there aren't any boosters at Oklahoma State more prominent than T. Boone Pickens, and with the possible exception of Phil Knight and Oregon, there's arguably no booster anywhere more prominent at his or her chosen athletics program that Pickens is in Stillwater.
That being the case, Pickens was all-but-conspicuous by his absence in the first installment of Sports Illustrated's expose into NCAA violations within Oklahoma State's football program, which alleged that multiple Cowboy boosters either paid players cash or hired players for sham jobs. But his complete absence from the report did little to stem his "disappointment," as he expressed in a statement and video released Monday afternoon:
The full text of the statement:
There's one word I have for the Sports Illustrated reporting on Oklahoma State University: Disappointing.
This series is not reflective of Oklahoma State University today. Many of their sensational allegations go back a decade ago.
There have been wholesale changes at the school in recent years in leadership and facilities. During that time, I have given more than $500 million to OSU, for athletics and academics. Have I gotten my money's worth? You bet. We have a football program that has a commitment to principled sportsmanship. They understand the expectations we, as fans and supporters, have for the program. We have an incredible and growing fan base, and a loyal group of alums that believe in the character of our players, coaches and administrators.
But I do welcome this scrutiny. If people take the time, it's an opportunity to better understand where Oklahoma State is today, not a decade ago. It's a different university today. It's a better university. If there are areas where we need to improve, we'll do it.
Which leads me back to my disappointment with Sports Illustrated, and their failure to ask the most important question of all: What's happening at OSU today?
It's hard to fault Pickens for his pride in Oklahoma State, or his focus on the present over what for many of the allegations is a distant past. But for most readers of SI's story, the fact is "what's happening at OSU today?" is a less important question than "did this actually happen at OSU yesterday?"
And on that particular point, Pickens' statement appears to not have an answer.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Jason Whitlock slams SI writer Thayer Evans
By KELLY HINES Sports Writer on Sep 10, 2013, at 1:07 PM
Updated on 9/10 at 3:38 PM
ESPN writer Jason Whitlock had some unkind things to say about his former co-worker Thayer Evans, who is one of the Sports Illustrated writers behind the publication's five-part exposé on Oklahoma State football. Here's what Whitlock said on the Oklahoma City Sports Animal earlier today:
“I have the obvious take (on the series) that I’m tired of these stories. We’ve been reading these stories for 30 years and I’m tired of people pointing out how corrupt participants are in a system that has been proven to be corrupt. The NCAA amateur system is corrupt, so we should not be surprised that there is corruption among the participants. I would like to see more of the focus on the NCAA and the system and fixing that, and then I’ll get upset about the corruption. I think the story is a cliché and bogus and suspect and just the wrong angle.
“But then in addition to that, having worked with Thayer Evans at Fox Sports, having followed his work for some time, I am completely and utterly flabbergasted that a legitimate news outlet would allow Thayer Evans to be involved in some type of investigative piece on college football that tears down a program, and particularly one that tears down Oklahoma State when it is no secret what a huge, enormous, gigantic Oklahoma homer Thayer Evans is. This is just incredible. Knowing the lack of competence that’s there with Thayer Evans, knowing the level of simplemindedness that’s there with Thayer Evans, to base any part of the story on his reporting is mind-boggling.
“ … When I learned Thayer Evans was involved, I just said, there’s no way I’ll read this because there’s no reason to trust this reporter on anything of any substance. If you go back and look at his track record of reporting and the consistent controversy that surrounds his reporting - he made a name for himself at the New York Times by writing these annual stories about some top high school football recruit that he would buddy up to, follow around with a tape recorder and then report what some immature 17-year-old kid said about the recruiting process. These kids tended to come from single-parent families with the mother working and busy, so there wasn’t the normal oversight and anybody with a brain could see the exploitation that was taking place. … It doesn’t surprise me there are sources in this story saying the reporting was heavy-handed and leading. I don’t want to make the whole thing about Thayer Evans, but there’s just no way to avoid it. I’ve worked with him. He’s simpleminded. He’s a hack that can’t write. This isn’t personal, I promise. I have no reason to dislike Thayer Evans personally, and I don’t. But I’ve read enough of his work this guy isn’t qualified for this job and by now Sports Illustrated and anybody else should be well aware of this. Type his name into Google, read his previous work, read how his previous work has been rebunked and there’s just no surprise. This story will be shrouded in controversy.
“ … I can’t disparage (other writer George Dohrmann) because I have never worked with him. I have never seen any of his raw copy or anything like that. There are a brand of sports writers who love doing these investigative pieces. They are not hard to do these days in terms of so-and-so got this money under the table. We’re into this area where unnamed sources can say anything, any of these he-said, she-said stories. I don’t respect the entire brand of investigative journalism that is being done here. It’s not our job to go out and do NCAA policing.
“ … There’s some cute girl on campus who is a hostess who may have slept with one of these players. This has been going on for years and it goes on in the frathouses and the academic corruption they are going to talk about goes on in the frathouses and all across campus. We are singling out these athletes. It’s a good story. It will get you a promotion. It will get you on SportsCenter. It will get you talked about on this radio show and all over Twitter. But it’s bogus. It’s a trick for clicks.
“ … The story to me, from everything I have heard ... it just seems so suspect. If that’s the standard, it’s he-said, she-said. If you can say this booster walked up to me and gave me $500 in the locker room and you don’t have to name that booster, this story could be done at Ball State. It could be done at Rutgers. It could be done at UCLA. It could be done anywhere.
“ … I hope (the named parties) get off scot-free because I don’t think they have done anything wrong. They are probably sweating bullets because America is so stupid and the sports media is so stupid that we will call for something to happen or we will want something to happen or the NCAA is so stupid. Yes, they should be sweating because we are in that kind of stupid society of no one wants to correct this corrupt system. But, for me, I hope Oklahoma State wins every game and wins the national championship. Have they lost this year? I hope they go Cam Newton. Remember when Cam Newton and his father were the worst thing on the planet. Oh my God. Thayer Evans was the leader of that. You would have thought Cam Newton was O.J. Simpson or Walter White. Cam Newton and his dad, who knows? Maybe they did want a couple of hundred thousand. More power to them. It’s America.
“ … Let me end by saying this and I honestly mean this without malice. It wouldn’t shock me if Thayer Evans couldn’t spell cat and I say in all seriousness.”
CONTACT THE BLOGGER
Kelly Hines
918-581-8452
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Patrick on SI allegations about OSU: 'It goes on all the time'
The Sports Illustrated project on Oklahoma State hasn't been published yet, but already national media are sounding off on ...